This invention generally is concerned with artist's materials, and more specifically the invention is addressed at the problem of artist's fabrics or canvases becoming loosened on their frames over time.
Due primarily to environmental factors and also due to the nature of fibers used in artist's fabrics, stretched on a frame, these fabrics tend to lose tension over time. Environmental factors can include variations in humidity or temperature, as well as varying exposure to light or other conditions.
The term "artist's fabrics" is intended to include the traditional canvas as well as other fabrics sometimes used by artists, stretched on a frame. The term is not limited to art works painted on canvas and also includes fabrics used for "canvas transfers", a process of transferring an image on paper to a traditional artist canvas to give the look of an original. The fabrics include (but are not limited to) cotton fabrics, linen fabrics, poly-cotton fabrics and burlap.
There have been attempts to correct the problem of relaxed, sagging canvases or fabrics. When a painting (or other art work) has been applied to the front surface of the artist's fabric, care must be taken not to damage the art work. In the past, wedges have been used at the edges of the frame, in the inside corners of the stretcher bar frame, to restretch the canvas by expanding the size of the frame. This strictly mechanical approach is somewhat time consuming and has the potential to damage the art work such as by cracking the paints on the surface. Moreover, the wedges have traditionally been supplied with every artist canvas, and they have been misused to expand canvases or fabrics which were not loose. Still further, the expanded frame may no longer fit a decorative outer frame. In addition, a canvas which has become loose may have only one area or zone which is loose or rippled, and the technique of expanding the whole frame will not address such local ripples but will require stretching the entire canvas or fabric in order to retension the subject zone.
Another technique used to retension canvas has been to remove the canvas from the stretcher bar frame and re-stretch it. This is very time consuming; however, many artist canvases today lack the capability of expanding because the wood frame is cut with miter joints that when joined together remain fixed with fasteners of various types. In that case the only technique available for retensioning the canvas has been to remove the canvas from the frame and restretch it.
The following U.S. patents show methods and techniques involving treatment of fabrics: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,092,888 (Mizell), 3,280,143 (Hayes), 3,831,200 (Weiss) and 4,286,955 (Lewis).
It is among the objects of this invention to provide a simple and inexpensive technique for tensioning an artist's fabric on a frame.